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applearaugmented realityaugmented-realityaugmentedrealityinternetmetaiovirtual realityvirtualrealityvrThu, 28 May 2015 22:35:00 -040021|21188482https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/17/the-goog-wants-to-reintroduce-you-to-its-mmoarg-ingress/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/17/the-goog-wants-to-reintroduce-you-to-its-mmoarg-ingress/https://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/17/the-goog-wants-to-reintroduce-you-to-its-mmoarg-ingress/#commentsRemember Ingress, the Google/Niantic Labs augmented reality pseudo-MMO that ensured my husband's old commute home took twice as long every day because he really had to swing over to the park to take it from the smurfs?

OK, maybe that's just my house.

Google has put Ingress in headlines again this week with a brand-new tutorial video meant to introduce newcomers to the strangely addicting game. "Ingress is a giant game of capture the flag where you play a video game but in real life," declares a montage of whom we are left to assume are players. "Ingress is like FourSquare meets Geocaching meets giant game of Risk, where the board is like the surface of the earth."

We've included the intro video below; the game is as always available for free on both the Apple and Android mobile stores. Go green team.

Developer Tale of Tales wants you to get acquainted with the world of their upcoming game, Sunset. One small, tiny, teensy-weensy problem though: unlike the developer's previous games, which took place in or were inspired by established universes, Sunset's land of Anchuria doesn't exist yet. So, Tale of Tales is building up the fiction of Sunset, starting with a website aimed at attracting tourists to the city of San Bavon.

Even though we in the real world already know that Sunset will feature an oppressive regime, the website also contains little hints that not all is well in the land of Anchuria. One section reads: "The museums and theaters have been closed to make room for state of the art factories and well equiped consumption centers. Work and freedom for the people of Anchuria!" Because closing down museums is always a good sign.

Tale of Tales noted on their Tumblr that they will share the story behind Anchuria and Sunset as they invent it.

The rumors swirling around Microsoft's me-too attitude regarding virtual reality may be more than idle gossip, according to TechCrunch. Citing unnamed sources, the site reports that Microsoft has purchased augmented reality-related intellectual property of wearable tech company Osterhout Design Group for between $100 and $150 million.

The big thing to note here is that Microsoft's IP acquisition revolves around augmented reality, not virtual reality. Think Google Glass, which is augmented reality, vs. Oculus Rift, which is virtual reality - the former lets you see the world with more information and visual enhancements, while the latter completely replaces the world and what you see with an entirely separate one.

It's also not clear whether this acquisition will lead to anything resembling the Oculus Rift or Project Morpheus for the Xbox; wearable tech is gaining traction in the mobile markets, with devices such as the Galaxy Gear from Samsung now on their second design iteration. In other words, Microsoft's acquisition of ODG's intellectual property may lead to new products which attach to Windows Phone as opposed to Xbox.

Really, any guess is fair game at this point. We won't know for sure how Microsoft intends to penetrate the VR and/or AR tech space until they themselves announce what, if anything, they're working on.

Remember that Xbox One ad full of mechs, soccer players, and Zachary Quinto? If you're a resident of the UK, you may also remember it for its strange, half-second image of a skull, a X-shaped symbol and a seemingly random string of letters. Xbox's UK division has unveiled just what was behind the mysterious imagery: an augmented reality game. You can take the red pill watch the reveal above.

The augmented reality game (ARG for short) put forward a number of clues to be decoded, including a string of binary code, websites in Latin, images that needed to be rearranged and sound-based puzzles. The treasure hunt culminated in a grab-bag of Xbox One prizes, including the console itself, a Collector's Edition of Titanfall, and a VIP trip to the US.

Said prizes were placed in an unmarked, white van in a secluded area, because nothing screams "come get your special prize" quite like an unmarked, white van in a secluded area. (We're relatively sure that part was staged considering winner Brad Butcher looks straight at a camera focusing on him, but still.) Congrats Brad!

The Cast AR Kickstarter project coming from two ex-Valve employees reached its $400,000 goal today, after just two days of being open to backers. Cast AR is a pair of augmented reality glasses that project graphics into the real world for multiple players to interact with.

Technical Illusions, the duo of Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson, were granted permission to continue the project after being let go by Valve alongside other hardware developers in February. The team set up a few stretch goals to continue funding the glasses after its initial goal: $600,000 will enable the developers to include a "customizable dungeon tile mapper" and reaching the $800,000 mark will add a microphone to the headset. There's plenty of time to reach these stretch goals; the funding campaign will conclude on November 14.
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ar-glassesaugmented-realitycastarcrowdfundingglasseshardwarejeri-ellsworthkickstarterpcrick-johnsontechnical-illusionsWed, 16 Oct 2013 13:20:00 -040011|20746826https://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/14/ex-valve-employees-crowdfund-augmented-reality-glasses/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/14/ex-valve-employees-crowdfund-augmented-reality-glasses/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/14/ex-valve-employees-crowdfund-augmented-reality-glasses/#comments

Former Valve employees Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson launched a Kickstarter project to fund the Cast AR augmented reality glasses. The glasses were initially developed while both Ellsworth and Johnson were working at Valve, and Ellsworth was granted permission to keep the AR glasses when she was let go by Valve in February.

As our friends at Engadget saw firsthand in May, the Cast AR headset projects visuals into the real world, granting multiple players the ability to interact with any kind of digital object as if it were physically in from of them. Under the moniker Technical Illusions, the duo hopes to bring Cast AR to market by raising $400,000 by November 14, and has already earned $45,930 in its first funding day. Given all the technical terms laid out in the funding campaign page, the developer created a simple pledge calculator to dictate how much money backers should give depending on the pieces of hardware they want, like the additional "Magic Wand" controller hardware.
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ar-glassesaugmented-realitycast-arcastarcrowdfundinghardwarejeri-ellsworthkickstarterpcrick-johnsonvalveMon, 14 Oct 2013 12:00:00 -040011|20744686https://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/22/hands-on-with-the-playroom-sonys-robot-filled-augment-reality/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/22/hands-on-with-the-playroom-sonys-robot-filled-augment-reality/https://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/22/hands-on-with-the-playroom-sonys-robot-filled-augment-reality/#comments

Pre-installed on every PlayStation 4, The Playroom is an augmented reality tech demo and toy box that fills your living room with tiny, dancing robots, assuming you've got the new Eye camera handy. It's pretty adorable and, as a piece of AR technology, is incredibly responsive, as we discovered during our (literal) sit-down with Sony's Nicolas Doucet at this year's Tokyo Game Show.

The Playroom isn't really the sort of thing most people will spend a lot of time with as a game, but it will invariably be booted up every time there's someone new to impress with your PlayStation 4 purchase. We figure it'll also be a big hit at parties, what with the obviously hilarious implications of the software's PlayStation App support.
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araugmented-realityhands-onnicolas-doucetplayroomps4sonythe-playroomSun, 22 Sep 2013 12:00:00 -040011|20726863https://www.tuaw.com/2013/08/22/ipad-with-augmented-reality-app-assists-in-liver-surgery/https://www.tuaw.com/2013/08/22/ipad-with-augmented-reality-app-assists-in-liver-surgery/https://www.tuaw.com/2013/08/22/ipad-with-augmented-reality-app-assists-in-liver-surgery/#comments

Reuters is reporting on a unique liver surgery that took place in Germany, where an iPad running an augmented reality app helped doctors plan and conduct the operation.

The app, developed by Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen, helps locate structures like tumors and blood vessels and is expected to improve the outcomes in such complicated procedures.

"With the new technology, we expect a better implementation of computer-aided surgical planning for tumor removal," said Prof. Karl Oldhafer. "The method has great potential. One can imagine it being used in the operation of other organs such as the pancreas."

The liver is filmed using the iPad camera, and then overlaid during an operation with virtual 3D models that were rendered from data in a real organ. You can see some photos from the operation here. Don't try looking during dinner or if you're squeamish.

The iPad has become quite popular in the medical field. Doctors I've talked to are really appreciative of the iPad mini, which easily fits in a lab coat.

There are plenty of star charts around the app store that feature augmented reality, where you tilt your iOS device toward the sky and the app reveals what planets and stars are in your field of view. Almost all are paid apps, so it's nice to see that Star Chart has gone free, although there are the inevitable in-app purchases. More about those later.

In the free version you get some very nice graphical representations of the night sky, a way to identify and learn more about what you are seeing. If you want to explore other areas of the sky without using the AR feature, just drag your finger over the screen. You can even point your screen down below the horizon and see what other parts of the world will be seeing at night.

In my tests the AR mode was accurate, so the app connection to the iPhone sensors was good and it was correctly interpreting my location, direction, and angle of the screen. The Messier Deep Sky catalog is included, so you can get some information about bright galaxies, nebula and star clusters.

The in-app purchases include meteor showers (U.S. $2.99), Extended Solar System ($2.99), Enhanced Constellations ($4.99), Extended Star Catalogs ($9.99) and Enhanced Messier Catalog ($4.99). Whew! Add in all of the in-app purchases, and you've racked up a bill of about $26.00. For that, you can get Distant Suns (Max) with similar features for $9.99.or Star Walk for $2.99. All the features don't line up across all 3 apps, but they are close enough that getting on the upgrade train for Star Chart doesn't make too much sense. Sky Safari Pro 3, which is more expensive at $39.99, has a vastly superior feature set and more data, as does Sky Safari 3 Plus ($14.99).

As an augmented reality free app, I do think Star Chart is excellent. You can pick and choose which in-app purchases, if any, make sense to you.

For a beginning amateur astronomer, the free version of Star Chart will do very nicely. I wish there was a discount for all the in-app purchases that could make upgrading a reasonable path.

Star Chart is a universal app and runs smoothly on the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 I tested it on. It requires iOS 4.3 or later, and is optimized for the iPhone 5. Our image galleries are in transition here at TUAW, so I can't post screen shots, but the app product page will show you some nice examples. The app also has a Facebook page.

During her termination meeting with Valve founder Gabe Newell, former hardware head Jeri Ellsworth told Newell to either fund her latest augmented reality gaming project, or let her leave with it. Ellsworth had been with Valve for one year and seven months, and she believed in the potential behind her team's progress – even though Valve was firing many of the people involved.

"Give it to them," Newell said.

Ellsworth and fellow former Valve teammate Rick Johnson took their prototypes and started Technical Illusions, where they've been working on Cast AR, a set of 3D, augmented reality glasses. Four weeks after Ellsworth was fired from Valve, she and Johnson hit a breakthrough in the Cast AR project, and everything came together ahead of schedule, she said on The Grey Area Podcast.

Cast AR is a "projected augmented reality" system that throws graphics into the real world, allowing players – multiple players at one time, even – to interact with an artificial projection as if it were actually right in front of them, using a wand-like controller and special mat. Engadget got their hands on the Cast AR in May.

Early prototypes of the Cast AR are hardly bigger than standard glasses for a 3D movie, with spots on the corners from whence the projections, well, project. A camera on the bridge of the nose tracks the surface of the mat, so the glasses know where the player is looking. This set-up allows the wearer to see objects from different angles, and could apply to board and computer games alike. Technical Illusions intend the glasses, wand and surface to cost less than $200, with a Kickstarter planned for early 2014, Ellsworth said.

Best of all, Cast AR makes Wizard's Chess a reality. "You can imagine Star Wars Chess, as an example," Ellsworth said on the podcast. "There's little chess characters just walking around your table. If I'm sitting in front, facing forward at them, I see their faces. And I can stand up, walk around the table, and I can see the backside of the characters."

When Valve let up to 25 hardware development staff go in February, Jeri Ellsworth was one of them, and she was working on a pair of 3D augmented-reality glasses at the time called Cast AR. Ellsworth continued work on them with her new company, Technical Illusions, and recently let our friends at Engadget take them out for a spin at the Maker Faire 2013 event in San Mateo, CA.

Cast AR is described as a "projected augmented reality system" on the company's site. Ellsworth said she plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign later in the year to fund the project, with the goal of each kit adding up to less than $200 for buyers. The site notes plans to include a development kit with each pair.

Valve will be giving two talks at GDC 2013, one to discuss porting Team Fortress 2 to virtual reality goggles, and the other focused on hurdles in developing for virtual and augmented reality.

Valve programmer Joe Ludwig will lead the TF2 talk, titled "What We Learned Porting Team Fortress 2 to Virtual Reality," and Valve research and development man Michael Abrash leads the second talk, called "Why Virtual Reality is Hard (And Where it Might be Going)." Abrash will focus on head-mounted displays. Not "displaying mounted heads" – that's at the Big-Game Developers Conference.

GDC 2013 is at San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 25 - 29. Other notable talks include a postmortem on FTL: Faster than Light, a talk from Capy on paid apps, one on The Walking Dead's art, and talks on mainstream games such as XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Assassin's Creed 3, Spec Ops: The Line, Hitman: Absolution, Mass Effect 3 and more. Peruse the list here.
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augmented-realitygdc-2013hmdpcteam-fortress-2valvevalve-softwarevirtual-realityTue, 15 Jan 2013 19:00:00 -050011|20430073https://www.tuaw.com/2013/01/07/ces-unveiled-sphero-reveals-new-apps-to-roll-around-in/https://www.tuaw.com/2013/01/07/ces-unveiled-sphero-reveals-new-apps-to-roll-around-in/https://www.tuaw.com/2013/01/07/ces-unveiled-sphero-reveals-new-apps-to-roll-around-in/#comments

The good folks at Orbotix, makers of the little roly-poly robot Sphero, were also in attendance at CES Unveiled last night, where they were showing off a number of new apps coming to add more functionality to the robotic ball. Sharky the Beaver was shown off a while ago, but it was on display last night as well, and it features the robot's complicated augmented reality system, where you can use the camera on your iOS device to spot Sphero, making it be displayed as something else (in this case, a cartoony beaver).

Orbotix also told us about Nyan Cat Space Party, another app for the ball that's out right now, that allows users to control the famous Pop-Tart/cat hybrid with Sphero itself. And the last app we saw was an upcoming release called Zombie Rollers, where you can use the ball as a hand-held controller to roll a little character around to crush zombies. The game looked really fun, and Orbotix told us it should be available in January for free.

We asked about sales figures for the little ball robot, but unfortunately, Orbotix didn't have any clear numbers to share, only telling us that there are "hundreds of thousands" of the balls out there in the world right now. And when we asked for other plans for the ball this year, the company's rep just explained that it's focusing on software development for the moment, both working on things like the augmented reality system for third-party developers to use in making games and apps, and working on its own mobile Sphero-enhanced software as well.

So it seems like a catch-up year for Sphero -- now that the ball itself is out and available (you can buy it online for US$130, or find it at a number of big retailers like Target and even the Apple Store), the focus seems to be on building up the library of software you can use it with. That's good news for Sphero owners, and of course the more apps that become available, the more luck Orbotix will have in convincing new customers to get on a roll themselves.

The Minecraft Reality app for iOS devices tracks the living world around you and then places your Minecraftcreations directly into it, to scale and in cool, augmented reality 3D. The video above does a better job of demonstrating how this turns out than we could with flimsy words.

Minecraft Reality is developed by 13th Lab, with the blessing of Minecraft developer Mojang. On top of checking out your creations alone, Minecraft Reality allows you to save them in specific locations for others to look at, at their leisure. The app runs $2 on the App Store and is universal, though optimized for iPhone 5.

We expect to see a range of blocky Gundams, Pokemon characters and, of course, a deluge of dicks in our real-world spaces soon. We know you so well.
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13th-labappargaugmented-realityiosipadiphonemicrosoftminecraftminecraft-realitymobilemojangpcxboxSun, 25 Nov 2012 22:30:00 -050011|20387783https://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/16/rumor-next-gen-xbox-details-spilled-in-penultimate-issue-of-xbo/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/16/rumor-next-gen-xbox-details-spilled-in-penultimate-issue-of-xbo/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/16/rumor-next-gen-xbox-details-spilled-in-penultimate-issue-of-xbo/#commentsXbox World will stop revolving come December, but it plans on going out with a bang. Specifically, the UK publication's second-to-last issue claims to have all the inside deets on Microsoft's next console.

The new console's name, for instance, will be simply "Xbox," with no numerical modifiers to speak of, according to the magazine. It'll supposedly ship with a quad-core processor and eight gigs of ram, run Blu-Ray discs and will eventually support some form of head-mounted augmented reality device, in addition to a next-generation Kinect.

"Xbox World has been at the cutting edge of Durango coverage for over 12 months," Xbox World EIC Dan Dawkins told CVG. "Unless something really dramatic changes, everything we reveal in our penultimate issue will be revealed long before E3 in June."
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araugmented-realitykinectkinect-2microsoftxboxxbox-720xbox-worldFri, 16 Nov 2012 20:00:00 -050011|20382125https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/12/nasa-spacecraft-3d-ios-app/https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/12/nasa-spacecraft-3d-ios-app/https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/12/nasa-spacecraft-3d-ios-app/#comments

Chances are most of us (you included) know this isn't NASA's first dive into the iOS pool, and the agency's latest addition to its app portfolio is surely going to make a high number of explorers very space happy. Dubbed Spacecraft 3D, the augmented reality application will let folks poke around the various, curious rovers and GRAILS NASA uses to explore our planet, the rest of the solar system and, of course, the entire abysmal universe. Even better, NASA's handing out the app free of charge, so those of you with a "Designed in California" device can grab it now from the App Store, and don't forget to check out the presser down below to soak in the official word. %Gallery-160255%

Human Element, the first game from Robert Bowling's Robotoki, will use Google Maps and Foursquare overlays to add a real-life tie in to its iPad iteration, which will in turn feed back into the "main" game. Bowling gave the example of hunting for medical supplies.

"You don't want to risk going out to forage in the game world, or maybe you did and can't find anything," he told GamesIndustry.biz, "but you know that there's a pharmacy four miles down the road in the real world. So you go out and you're out and about in the real world. You open up Human Element on your iPad. We're overlaying the world of Human Element onto the Googlemaps API, FourSquare business API, we're taking your real world and merging it with your game world." Bowling claimed this would be possible anywhere GPS data was available.

Bowling also suggested that connected experiences like the iPad game would begin to tell the Human Element story before the 2015 release date of the console game. "The 2015 deadline is the at-home, console experience. That experience, from a story standpoint, takes place 30 years after the event, after the apocalypse," he explained. "We can engage you in that universe a week, a month, a year after that event. Maybe through mobile, maybe through titles on the arcade, maybe through PSN, handheld titles. We can start telling that story leading up to that big event in 2015 where we tie them all together."
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augmented-realitygpshuman-elementmobilerobert-bowlingrobotokiThu, 05 Jul 2012 20:15:00 -040011|20272569https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07/02/not-so-massively-path-of-exiles-map-system-d3-drop-rates-and/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07/02/not-so-massively-path-of-exiles-map-system-d3-drop-rates-and/https://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07/02/not-so-massively-path-of-exiles-map-system-d3-drop-rates-and/#comments

Upcoming MOBASMITE met some opposition from The Universal Society of Hinduism this week as the game lets players control the Hindu gods Kali, Vamana, and Agni. Developers also released Guan Yu this week, a new character based on an ancient Chinese general. Lord of the Rings-based MOBAGuardians of Middle-earth published its first gameplay trailer this week, showing classic DotA-style gameplay tweaked for console controls.

Diablo III released a hotfix this week that doubled the drop rate of valuable items in Inferno difficulty and made bosses more tempting targets. Blizzard also announced plans to address the use of gear-switching mouse macros that players have been abusing in magic find runs. Upcoming free-to-play dungeon crawler Path of Exile released exciting details about its endgame map system that is sure to take over from traditional magic find runs.

League of Legends celebrated the release of its Pulsefire Ezreal legendary skin this week with a half price offer and an updated Ezreal champion spotlight video. Dota 2 also continued its march toward release with the addition of two classic heroes: Luna and Wisp. Finally, Firefall reached a whopping 500,000 beta signups this week and impressed fans with an augmented reality technology demo.
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action-mmoaction-rpgartificial-realityaugmented-realitybattlenetbetasblizzardblizzard-entertainmentcompetitive-gamingconsoled3deitiesdeitydiablodiablo iiidiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiidominiondotadota-2dropdrop-ratesdungeonse-sporte-sportsesportesportsezrealf2pfantasyfeaturedfree-to-playgame mechanicsgodgodsgothic-fantasygrinding-geargrinding-gear-gamesguan-yuhinduhinduismhotfixinfernojon-olickleague of legendsleague-of-legendslollootlord-of-the-ringslotrmagic-findmapmapsmiddle-earthmobamonolithmonolith-studiosmultiplayernewsnews itemsnot so massivelynot-so-massivelynsmonline-multiplayerpath-of-exileplaystation-networkpoeps3psnpulsefirepulsefire-ezrealpvpred-5-studiosreligionriotriot-gamesround-uprounduprpgtrailersvalvevideowarner-brosxboxxbox-360xbox-livexbox360Mon, 02 Jul 2012 20:00:00 -0400319|20269891https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/02/amazon-flow-augmented-reality-android-app/https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/02/amazon-flow-augmented-reality-android-app/https://www.engadget.com/2012/07/02/amazon-flow-augmented-reality-android-app/#comments

The iOS crowd's been able to enjoy Flow's AR features since late last year, but fortunately for those on the Android side who've been missing out, this powered-by-Amazon app is now (finally) also available on Google's OS. It's simple, using augmented reality and A9's "continuous scan technology," the application allows users to buy, as well as get extra information on products such as video games, books, toys, DVDs and CDs through simply using one's smartphone camera -- much like Google Goggles does. Additionally, Flow will keep your scanning history on file, making it easier to find items by date, name, category or scan type. What's more, Amazon's Flow won't cost you a nickel, and it's up for download now via the company's own app shop and the Google Play link below.

All right, so the existing Vita AR games aren't hits. But Sony's still trying, demonstrating a new AR game at GDC that's more impressive than the current lineup. It's Pong.

AR Hockey, which the Sony staff assured me was currently only a tech demo, is an air hockey game in which two players face off over a rectangular surface, each controlling their paddle by physically shifting left or right.

Unlike, say, Table Soccer, which uses six damn cards, AR Hockey can build a playing field out of any rectangular surface it detects -- basically, any corners the Vita can see. This is the "markerless" AR tech shown by Sony back at TGS, and it seems to work just fine, even if you move the Vita around to change your perspective on the game. Though, as one nearby attendee asked, "Why would you want to do that?"
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arar-gamesar-hockeyaugmented-realitygdc-2012playstationplaystation-vitavitaSat, 10 Mar 2012 12:00:00 -050011|20189944https://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/01/kid-icarus-uprising-has-hundreds-of-ar-cards-make-space-in-you/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/01/kid-icarus-uprising-has-hundreds-of-ar-cards-make-space-in-you/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/01/kid-icarus-uprising-has-hundreds-of-ar-cards-make-space-in-you/#comments

Each copy of Nintendo's Kid Icarus: Uprising for 3DSwill include six AR cards, but as far as Nintendo sees it, that hardly makes it difficult enough to catch "collect them all." Nintendo has announced there will be "hundreds" of AR cards available and it will host special events for players to trade, share and obtain new cards after the title's launch on March 23.

The cards can be placed facing each other and the AR figures will battle, which we think is cooler than just watching Pit preen his feathers -- but you can totally do that too. We assume.
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3dsar-cardsaugmented-realitycardskid-icarus-uprisingnintendotrading-cardsThu, 01 Mar 2012 14:30:00 -050011|20183706https://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/22/video-playstation-vitas-ar-game-trio/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/22/video-playstation-vitas-ar-game-trio/https://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/22/video-playstation-vitas-ar-game-trio/#comments

With the retail launch of the Vita hardware comes the arrival of three augmented reality games, using a set of six cards that look an awful lot like the ESP test cards Dr. Venkman used in Ghostbusters. I downloaded them all from the PlayStation Store today, carefully set up a camera between my face and Vita (keeping the table in view) and demonstrated all three.

Of the three, Fireworks is the definite standout. And by "standout" I mean "one I could foresee playing a second time."

This happens to us every time: We walk into the cell phone store, search the displays excitedly, and are immediately disappointed by the lack of small firearms for sale. Every time. Mobile games developer Metal Compass is looking to change this depressing experience with the Xappr, a gun-shaped smartphone peripheral for a selection of augmented-reality and shooting apps, including AR Invaders and Spray'Em. Xappr is compatible with iOS, Android and Windows devices, although no Windows games are available at the moment.

Metal Compass will be showing off the Xappr at the Nuremberg international toy fair, which runs February 1-6, and expects to begin shipping it in June. Xappr is available for pre-order now, at the lowest price you'll ever pay for a gun you didn't steal: $30 (plus $15 shipping in the US).
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androidaugmented-realitygungunsiosipadiphonemetal-compassmobilenuremberg-toy-fairperipheralssmartphonexapprThu, 02 Feb 2012 18:15:00 -050011|20162933